Cold '19 Party' draws 1,600 prospective greek women

If the IU Health Center sees a surge in cases of the flu next week, it might look to this year's "19 Party." About 1,600 women spent most of the weekend trekking between IU's 19 different sorority houses in freezing weather for the first stage of women's recruitment.\n"If they are going to be making you stand outside for 20 minutes at a time, they should at least do it when it isn't 10 degrees outside," potential sorority member and freshman Lizzie Oliver said. \nThough the weather was far from ideal, the rest of recruitment went smoothly, despite changes in the recruitment rule book, said senior Kelly Jones, vice president of recruitment for the IU Panhellenic Association. Previously, sorority members were not allowed to talk about men or partying during recruitment.\n"Everyone is acting really ethically and making (potential) new members really comfortable," Jones said. "I've been expecting my phone to be ringing off the hook with problems, but that hasn't happened." \nThis year, sororities were encouraged to develop their own recruitment policy regarding what members could talk about with potential members, Jones said. \n"What we're trying to do at IU is to get recruitment to be less strict and lower the rules each year," said junior Lauren Rectanus, assistant recruitment chairwoman at Kappa Delta. "We want to really bring a moral-based recruitment, where people at each chapter can make their own \ndecisions." \nBut the change in rules did not necessarily mean booze and boys were the only topics of conversation, recruitment chairwomen at several sororities said. \n"The standard I set was that we want to put a positive vibe out about our house, and we don't want to attract people who only want to join for the social aspect," said senior Alex Bernardi, recruitment chairwoman for Delta Delta Delta. "You don't have to completely brush over those topics, but you don't focus on it."\nStill, others chose to keep the same recruitment standards as before the ban. Delta Zeta recruitment chairwoman Molly Wright, a junior, said Delta Zeta did not relax the policy at all. But she said she found the change in rules to be positive because members did not have to worry about getting in trouble if potential members brought it up. \nOthers agreed the changes made the process more natural. Last year, rules included restrictions on vocabulary, which sometimes made conversations awkward, said senior Liza Iaccarino, recruitment chairwoman for Pi Beta Phi. Previously, for example, women had to refer to sororities as "chapters," not houses, and dorms as "residence halls." \n"Girls in my house feel like they can let their guard down, don't have to worry about getting your house in trouble," Iaccarino said. "Typically, it didn't happen often, but you were so worried about it, it was constantly in the back of your mind. But with the new rules being more relaxed, people are having much better conversations."\nFor the most part, freshmen did not typically ask about the previously forbidden topics, Bernardi said. \nWhile sophomore Dawn Dassell, a potential sorority member, said she did not talk about those topics, she said she felt more at ease about the process with the new rules. \n"You don't feel so uptight," Dassell said. "If you mention, 'Oh, my boyfriend did this,' that shouldn't be a big deal." \nFreshman Liz Pinkham said the social aspect played a role in her decision to participate in recruitment but was not the only reason. She said for the most part, neither potential members nor sorority members brought up drinking or men during recruitment.\n"If you're are thinking about that, you probably already know that's what it's going to be like," Pinkham said.